


Act 5, Scene 9

by jammingkambing



Category: Macbeth - Shakespeare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Dungeon, Guilt, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Pre-Slash, macbeth's in prison woo, macduff spares macbeth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:02:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23394460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jammingkambing/pseuds/jammingkambing
Summary: The Thane of Fife is the only visitor of the disgraced former Thane of Cawdor.
Relationships: Macbeth/Macduff
Comments: 6
Kudos: 6





	Act 5, Scene 9

DUNGEON. Enter Macbeth, imprisoned.

MACBETH  
What miserable aberration am I  
who once stood as Agamemnon to great armies,  
gifted as I was by the prophecies of strange Fates,  
and yet be reduced to become lesser than the worst of Trojans,  
who were made ash by the stokings of their homes  
but, nonetheless, were never imprisoned by that  
which they were supposed to be masters of?

Life's part is cruel, forsooth,  
at least in this hour, to this soul,  
and the way to Minos' realm  
is lit brilliantly by these low torches.

Enter Macduff.

MACBETH  
Shall I play the blind fool and ask who comes here  
when, truly, there is just the one blinder fool  
who goes to this dwelling-place  
and speaks to the same man that he hath spared?

MACDUFF  
It is I, Macduff, who is the right hand of the king  
and that man not born of woman  
who did defy those harlots you call Fates  
and spare that insane king  
who did not exceed four-score days  
in his pitiful reign.

MACBETH  
Thou know'st how to jest  
which is not a usual condition for  
a man who is of your tragic experience.

MACDUFF  
Has that sycophant usurper  
realized the weight of his heavy blows?  
Or have mine ears found comfort  
in the hearing of falsehoods?

MACBETH  
I say that you are tragic.  
This is as true and deep as mine own living.  
MACDUFF  
If 't be so, why doth thy mark thyself  
now, when darkness has been made the point of living?  
These dungeons hath no release  
for the flowing of remorse.

MACBETH  
Poor is the man whose hand  
forges cruelty as he longs for his own peace;  
poorer still is he who has  
disavowed God and renounced forgiveness  
all in the vain hope and pride  
that he may acquire sleep without  
the taste of monstrous nighttime,  
ignorant as he is to the perpetual twilight  
that he is the artist of.

MACDUFF  
Do these dungeons reek so of nightmares?  
Is there no hope in these confinements?

MACBETH  
In the rat that scurries by, perhaps.

MACDUFF  
What of me?

MACBETH  
Ay, then what a big rat you are!

MACDUFF  
This rat seeks the faint glow and kindling  
of thy worthy redemption, Thane.

MACBETH  
Then thou faces me a hair-scraggled rat  
who was fool enough to let thine own  
son and spouse die, and rather than kill  
the murd'rer, would rather reach  
in vague futility for the atonement of rooted sin.

MACDUFF  
Would you despise my attempts? Wherefore?

MACBETH  
I brandish these wretched hands.  
The normal sight would not afford you,  
but through the clarity of memory shows  
these oceans, and the every drop of them  
stained with Azrael's proud crimson.  
Their ghosts dance above these cursed palms;  
here is Banquo, who I so dearly loved,  
and yet with these hands it was as if I  
bade him reside in a ditch;  
such is the death of he who was dear to me.  
What of the gracious Duncan?  
After he crowned me with glossy praise  
and set me with titles that are too  
loose for me now, I did visit him  
to give my thanks in bloody favor.  
Let us not forget the slaughter of thine own kin,  
who were blameless in the act,  
and whose sole fault lay in their relation to your nobility.

Lord, I am not in offense by your kindness.  
But I should despise your attempts  
and thy nobility should not be availed of  
by the Morningstar, who the world calls Macbeth.

MACDUFF  
If I am a man--

MACBETH  
You are hundredfold the man I am, truly.

MACDUFF  
Then I forgive you like a man.  
The great seas of blood have dried,  
and there is but the mist left to rain and storm.  
The uncertainty lies in whether thou shall drown  
or bathe and be baptized by  
all the saints of forgiveness.

MACBETH  
You see my path in white lucency.

MACDUFF  
You were noble, once,  
and you might have been ensconced in  
our volumes of history not as you are in this cell.  
You did save our nation from the Norweyans  
and their fraud ruler.  
You were once paragon and virtue,  
and though you did not wield royal scepter,  
Scotland loved its Thane of Cawdor as well as  
its good King, may God bless his soul.

MACBETH  
Fate hath condemned me.

MACDUFF  
And we have once countered Fate.  
I take my leave. I shall see you again.

Macduff exits. 

MACBETH  
To the fool, the glory.

**Author's Note:**

> lmao


End file.
